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Writer's picturePenny Colman

Phillis Wheatley

Today

– July 11 – in 1761, a young girl arrived in Boston, Massachusetts, on board a slave ship, Phillis.  She was bought by John Wheatley, a white merchant, whose daughter would teach the girl, named Phillis Wheatley, English, Latin, and Greek.   In 2003 I went to the dedication of the Boston Women’s Memorial by Meredith Bergman, comprised of three statues: Phillis Wheatley, Lucy Stone, and Abigail Adams.  I took many photographs at that event, including these in my collection of

the statue representing Phillis Wheatley.  The inscription reads: “Born in West Africa and sold as a slave/from the ship Phillis in  Colonial Boston/She was a literary prodigy whose 1773 volume/Poems on Various Subjects Religions/and Moral was the first book published/by an African writer in America.”

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